McGuiggan
McGuiggan is a player-controlled (by RielCZ) character from the Temphere universe, originally an original member of Wednesday (Island) Group and now a member of the Main (Merged) Party. Etymology "McGuiggan" was McGuiggan's last name from his human parent; following a common convention for elves to choose their names, he chose this to be his name and stage name. History Pre-Adventure Time! McGuiggan was born to a human parent and an elf (or maybe very elf-like half elf?) parent. He felt a somewhat closer connection to the artistry of the elves, and took up music; over time, he honed the viol, pan flute, and dulcimer, but the viol is his instrument of choice. Eventually feeling disconnected among his human and Elven peers, he set off soon after maturity to hone his musical skills and in search of learning as many songs as he could, hoping one day to be able to write "the perfect song" to appease first of all himself, and then maybe the art god. One place he ventured to was the Underdark, where he picked up Undercommon. (Those Undercommon songs sound crazy yo.) At some place in Temphere he encountered and spent some time with the Fae, and particularly one such Fae taught him to imbue magic with his music and this would prompt him toward the College of Glamour. Some unfigured out amount of time (but not too long) after, he found himself watching some wreckage crash into the sea alongside a warforged and a gnome, and was sort of dragged in to investigate. This would take him to places where he could hopefully learn more songs and further hone is musical prowess -- in between kicking monster butt and doing other cool things (when the dice are in his favor). Wednesday Group Adventure 1: Here be Pirates! McGuiggan met up with Fracture (the warforged) and Kindrin (the gnome) and they set off to try and determine what seemed to fall from the sky and land in the sea. Upon investigation, they found two humanoids (The Helders) who were unconscious. They found and followed Pumpkin and found Athelia, who helped guide them to the lab of the Helders, who were actually inventors of some sort, and with the help of Dart (who found out the name of what had crashed into the sea -- an airship that had been piloted by the now unconscious folk!) they entered the lab. While there, they created a concoction to heal the Helders, and battled a boss. They returned and awoke the unconscious and all was well. Wednesday Group Interlude 1: Sly like a Fox Mask Kindrin breaks away from the party due to other obligations, but McGuiggan, Fracture, and Athelia are tasked to deliver a message! However, Athelia lets Fracture and McGuiggan play around in the Festival of Masks while she finishes the delivery herself. McGuiggan gets a red fox mask and he embarks on a series of games with Fracture to win tickets and get cool prizes. He tries to act something like a guide to her, as she has never done this before (whether he successfully led her is up to Fracture), but did manage to intimidate someone who tried to say that Warforged don't belong there. The two carve pumpkins, and McGuiggan carves a Pumpkin-in-Pumpkin. In the end, they get a neat Magic!Photo of themselves taken, and watch their pumpkin carvings float off into the night as Athelia returns. Wednesday Group Adventure 2: Aw, Fish Sticks! McGuiggan, Fracture, and Athelia go out and meet Jolene, an old acquaintance of Athelia, and seek to find why an old friend of Jolene (and Athelia?) has disappeared. Along the way, they discover sharks, water elementals, and the fish-people known as Kuo-Toa! They eventually find a young pirate-kid who informs them the crew has been kidnapped by some monster who turns out to be a big meanie tentacle-head. He has had his minions -- big kuo-toa -- capture and tie-up the whole crew in what seems to be an abandoned lighthouse. After Fracture stealthily intrudes (but not so stealthily as to untie everyone), a battle ensues, and Fracture, McGuiggan, Athelia, and Jolene soon find themselves face to face with Tentacle-Head, who has enslaved one of the crew members to cast water elementals using a bowl. After killing most (all?) of the kuo-toa and the water elemental escapes, creating a huge hole in the lighthouse, Tentacle-Head escapes out the hole as well. The adventurers learn about the Aquan Bowl used to conjure the elementals due to McGuiggan's use of the Identify spell. They also learn the bown was owned by the lighthouse keeper, who gIve it to Fracture and McGuiggan to take to the inventors. Fracture and McGuiggan go to question the enslaved crewmember who used the bowl, but it seems he had no evil motives. Merged Group Adventure 1: The Mergening: An Epic in 10 (and counting) Parts Subadventure I: Hey Look It's You Guys! Fracture and McGuiggan depart Athelia and, as a giant setup, go to a friend of the inventors who is "a monster hunter" (presumably the same Valanthe told the Sunday Group to search for), for information on Tentacle-Head. On the journey, they run into Anther, Cree, Dahlia, and Hush, and a relatively easy union forms between their two parties. They adventure around the town a bit together while they buy supplies and things. The union is solidified when the parties are thrown into having to put out a fire together caused by T'hamil, because he tried to use LIGHTNING MAGIC to destroy a thorn he dug up. It turned out these sorts of thorns were just what the others (Sunday Group) had once been chasing after, and naturally they were very upset at having to deal with one again. Together, they found (much to McGuiggan's chagrin) and defeated some plant monsters, but realized there was another one that had just managed to wander into the Frostfell over a crossover with the plane. Subadventure II: A Blanket is NOT Good Enough for Hell Frozen Over The party runs into some Mephits who try to sell them wares. McGuiggan finds them somewhat sketchy and thinks he can survive with just a blanket -- luckily, Anther forces him to think again, and he buys the full winter outfit. The party continues chasing after the plant after clues given by the Mephits, and they choose to pursue a cave. Along the way they encounter oxen and other things, including crossing a river; shortly before the river, however, McGuiggan fell ill to LEVEL 1 EXHAUSTION (*insert daunting music*); he was appreciative of Fracture's offer to carry him (though he turned it down) and supposed Anther was right after all about the clothes. They crossed the river and avoided a big cat that wanted to eat them. They even took down a yeti waiting for them on the other side. A chill wind winter storm came up, and not wanting to enter the yeti cave, they opted for another, which had a literal giant skeleton in it. They entered a door (on the right) and found more bones, and battled a few sabre tooth tigers (some of which happened to have kittens). The party would later enter a large room and fight a remorhaz (because a totally not contrived larger remorhaz appeared which drove them into said large room). Following this, they went into an icy cavern that became a rocky cavern, and while they continued to wait for the storm to pass they sat down and had a story time. McGuiggan told them that he was on a quest to learn all sorts of songs and to eventually write the perfect song, the bardic masterpiece, and that he does love his charisma magic but in trying to reassure Cree commented he doesn't use it for evil. He and Facture told them about their adventures with Tentacle Head, the Kuo-Toa, and the Aquan Bowl. McGuiggan really didn't reveal too much new information -- he was too exhausted and sober for that -- but he did prompt Cree to reveal she was an orphan and was only a bard because of her circus background (and that barding wasn't really for her), and he prompted Anther to reveal why she hated elementals and why she wanted to leave her city. As story time wound down, McGuiggan shared some candy that he'd acquired from the Festival of Masks with the group (particularly, everyone but Hush, although Fracture said she would give hers to Hush on account of Fracture not having a mouth). Dahlia believed it to be a token of their newfound friendship, and McGuiggan was happy with this development. He woke when the storm had passed (but it was still dark out), no longer exhausted and feeling much much better. The party left the cave then in search of other things. McGuiggan met some icy wolves, and three ice mephits who were picking on said wolves. The ice mephits then challenged the party to a battle, warning the party that they had a "friend" coming. That friend was actually an ice elemental. When the elemental came, McGuiggan, spur of the moment, decided to use his Faerie Fire Ring to launch Faerie Fire at the elemental and the remaining mephit (the others had been killed or scared away). The mephit did not get the glow, but the ice elemental did, and McGuiggan chose a "bright pale red," causing the elemental to glow, with the glow within refracting off the ice -- thus, McGuggan invented the disco ball, and disco was born. The effect was made even cooler by some fog that the mephit produced, so there were lights shining through the fog, the light neutralizing the disadvantage caused by being unable to see. McGuiggan also used vicious mockery against the mephit, causing it to die and explode, and in the process further injuring the ice elemental; Cree commented that "that's why she's a subpar bard" or something akin, to which McGuiggan said that he "could teach her." After that battle was won, the wolves introduced themselves. Using the power of wolf-friends, they figured out where the plant monster was, but it was far away. However, some hyppogryphs could get the party there faster, in exchange for a favour. However, before setting out, one very inquisitive wolf decided to question the party as to what they were in terms of species and occupation. Cree decided to get McGuiggan involved in the conversation by pulling down the hood of his cloak with mage hand. He said he was a half-elf, meaning he was half something that looked like Anther, half something that looked like Anther but without the pointy ears. Cree commented that McGuiggan is also a very different colour from Anther -- which didn't matter to the wolves given they were essentially blind to colour -- but McGuiggan went beside Anther anyway for them to get a better comparison. And then Anther went and pushed him into the snow. Naturally, he was very surprised and not necessarily happy at the development of this "McGuiggan Abuse" day, and threw a snowball at Anther, thus prompting a small snowball fight. That quieted down shortly thereafter, and the party continued to be led by the wolves until they encountered the hyppogryphs. McGuiggan suggested flattery, much to the rest of the party's seeming disapproval; in the end, the hyppogryphs just wanted someone to rescue some chicks that had fallen down onto a ledge from where their parents could feed them but could not rescue them. So, McGuiggan used Enhance Ability to give Anther Cat's Grace so she could achieve a daring rescue and rescue the chicks (in a very Mission Impossible style); the Cat's Grace ended up being very important, too, given Anther could only pass the checks with the advantage she had from her cat-ness! Once that was done, the appreciative hyppogryphs gave the party members a ride on their backs using saddles to the plant monster. Subadventure III: If You Can't Bond Over What You Hate, What CAN You Bond Over? Much to both parties' horrors, they realized that not only were the plant monsters and its varying thornlines on the battlefield, but ALSO Tentacle Head and the Kuo-Toa. McGuiggan realized that it was finally time to Thunderwave. Personality McGuiggan kinda just goes along with whatever is thrown at him. Oftentimes he wishes he was not in these situations (like chasing plant monsters), but is happy he can help out his friends and allies (assuming he's not KO'd). If a problem can be solved with Performance, McGuiggan is there! He can be a bit quiet at times but usually because it takes him a bit to absorb the gravity of a situation, but when someone ropes him into a problem/battle he'll do his best to help it get resolved quickly (so he can go back to the calm and safety). Likes/Dislikes Likes * Music, and getting to show off his mad viol performance skills. * Performing with others (such as with Cree at the Inn). * Speaking Elvish (especially to playfully annoy those who cannot speak it, like Cree). * Animals, but he is not attached to any particular one animal, and is somewhat skeptical of animals to which others are giving lots of attention. * Balls he gets to perform at. Dislikes * Snow, wind, and cold weather (so he has learned after it exhausted him). * Fish-creatures (except perhaps Dart). * Swimming (he dislikes this a LOT) -- he considers swimming to be one of the worst things he has to deal with. * Plants that hurt. * Balls he has to participate in. (The reason why is currently unknown, but presumably it has to do with getting too drunk and having a Very Bad Time.) Trivia In-Game * McGuiggan was the first character in the Wednesday group to become KO'd -- twice, fighting the same boss (Tentacle-Head)! * McGuiggan was the first character in the campaign to become exhausted, due to the environment of the Frostfell. On the Other Side of the 4th Wall * McGuiggan's art style (and his main picture on this page) was created by Shinko and subsequently developed by everyone except RielCZ (because his art stats need improvement)! * RielCZ got the name for McGuiggan from his youngest sister's new elementary school teacher in the fall the AmericaLand DND campaign started (2018). Liking the name, he internet-searched "McGuiggan" for potential further information and found it was the surname of some pastor-blogger who was once referred to as "The Dragon Slayer," and RielCZ knew the name was meant to be. Category:Characters Category:Temphere Characters Category:Temphere PCs